No one can answer this question today except the Italian electorate with its free vote. The election campaign period showed that none of the Italian political parties is taking part in this election as a political force on its own, but rather as part of particular alliances, such as the Progressives, led by the Democratic Party of the Left; the right, where the standouts are Forza Italia, led by the press magnate Berlusconi, the Lega Nord, led by Umberto Bosi, and the neo-fascist party MSI, led by Fini. These three right-wing parties have watched one another jealously, each wondering which will take the role of first violin in the event of a right-wing victory, while (Continued on page 4)

Qelesh’s closing argument: 14 years in prison sought for the chairman of the Socialist Party and MP Fatos Nano The defence will now have the floor, followed by the court panel presided over by Bendo. So far, nothing demonstrates the court’s independence. Justice is once again lagging behind, leaving the decision to a party order. FATOS NANO DECLARES IN THE COURTROOM: «I accept the challenge, finally understanding that it is too late for Mr Qeleshi to withdraw, since those who pay him have begun the election campaign...» YESTERDAY IN THE COURTROOM AND OUTSIDE IT

The magic wand with which it strikes / The Prosecution: Blerim Çela’s report while IN THE COURTROOM AND OUTSIDE IT The magic wand with which it strikes The Prosecution: Blerim Çela’s report - For the sixth time, this time in the form of a closing argument, the report by Blerim Çela, Chairman of the State Control Service, is read aloud. - - The seventh reading appears to be the turn of Judge Agim Bendo. Yesterday, around 12:20, the trial resumed [i] what was later considered the most remarkable event of this parliament, the judicial proceedings against the chairman of the PS and MP Fatos Nano, as well as against Sokoplat Pika, Robert Gjini and Hasan Hallko. The distinctive feature at the outset was the police stopping TV operator Nain Lasku outside the court. The police had earlier ordered him not to film in those premises, where, as always, a considerable number of police officers were present, surrounding nearly 2 hectares of land like a fence. The operator’s refusal to obey the order was followed by his being put into a police car. As had been announced, yesterday’s hearing belonged to the smiling prosecutor; in other words, it was their turn to deliver the closing argument. Not just any argument, but an interesting indictment, a great [one], concerning journalists and employees of the Albanian Secret Service, whose identities had by now been exposed. The observers’ interest would be recorded on the tapes of the numerous tape recorders: the magic wand with which the Tirana Prosecution has been striking for seven months, namely Blerim Çela. Read for the first time in the hall of the Albanian Parliament before MPs, and amid several dramatic accusations by ministers in that chamber, it provoked and reopened the judicial process, turning it into a real trial, without the case file but also accompanied by procedures that made it very slow. Judge Mr Bendo, lost for words, became the target of the criticism that characterizes him and his role in this trial. Yesterday, characterizes him and his role in this trial. In any case, this process was reopened, and it was read and published in the pages of RD by chief investigator Fatos Dervishi in the form of interviews. Second, Third, written by Fatos Dervishi, but read by Arben Qeleshi in the form of an indictment in the courtroom. Fourth, accompanied by comments in the form of testimony from Rivan Qarri. Fifth, accompanied by legal commentary and economic aspects from the financial expert, also presented by the prosecution. And sixth, the version prepared for this occasion, again by prosecutor Qeleshi, who apparently, after delivering the closing argument, reserves the right for Judge Bendo to reread Blerim Çela’s report for the seventh time. As for the closing argument delivered by Qeleshi, we can say that it relied on this report, on the basis of which the complaint must also have been made, and which was drawn up by a member of the leadership of the Democratic Party, namely Blerim Çela. That is enough for comment. Is the Chairman of the Tirana Court, Agim Bendo, a judge?! - Why, what do we know? You’re the ones who send us the tapes... These are the words of the presiding judge, Mr Agim Bendo, addressed to Messrs Fatos Nano and the other parties. There were other words too. In principle, prosecutor Sanxhaku said that the matter concerned the judiciary. The words having been said, following the “illegal permit” there would be ... The trial has reopened, and not only budgets and files will be examined one by one, but also the next decision concerning the charges, procedures and steps taken by the prosecution. If we are to for comment.

- After this fundamental elementary right was previously denied, it is denied for a second time. - This fact was made known to Mr Nano and his defence yesterday through an interim decision by the court panel. Lawyer Sanxhaku asked the court panel for an appropriate amount of time to prepare the defence and proposed 16 April. Having had no prior access to the investigation file, Sanxhaku requested that the file be made available to him in order to prepare the defence. «If the file is not given to us, on the 16th we will present a partial defence,» Sanxhaku stressed. The judge dismissed this request, calling it absurd and equivalent to the request to question the 51 witnesses again—an insult to the court panel. Thus, once again, MP Fatos Nano was denied what no one should be denied: access to the investigation file before Judge Bendo, who, strangely, guards it zealously. Why?

This sanction of the law, which Mr Qeleshi finds difficult to read fluently, [is evident as] he delivers his closing argument, sweating profusely, smiling under pressure at the prosecutors’ strange jokes, after he was forced to become serious by Mr Nano’s words. This closing argument has been in use since 23 March at Villa No. 4, where the prosecutor stands beside Mr Qeleshi. Yesterday, when the lawyers asked for time and the file to be made available to them—the file containing a whole mountain of accusations—and Mr Bendo’s defence [sic] requested that the defence be allowed, Bendo announced through an interim decision that the date would be set for the defence, the prosecutor... ...Qeleshi was found in the courthouse yard, and then, accompanied by Mr Gjokutaj, the editor-in-chief of the independent «Rilindja Demokratike», an organ of the party that today owns state property, zdi Paloka, was found by the railings with a somewhat strange request. Shortly after Mr Gjokutaj was handed from Qeleshi’s hands to those of the trial prosecutors, from a blue bag inside which «apparently today in RD» there was what, according to Mr Nano, was signed by him on a sheet. Qeleshi and Gjokutaj had prepared it in... Bendo, a state employee, had previously also been accused by Mr Nano and his lawyers of acting as a prosecutor rather than a judge—an accusation that Bendo seemed to accept precisely through the above statement and the strange distinction he made. The second strange thing that followed from the first was that Mr Bendo knew where Nano and his lawyer sent the recorded tapes. Connected with the first point, Mr «Bendo-We», a state employee, this would mean that Bendo—or «We»—had been surveilling a free man like Mr Sanxhaku, who, as far as we know, has not committed any criminal offence (other than defending MP Fatos Nano), nor is he suspected of having committed any such offence, because if things were otherwise, given the severity with which Mr Bendo addresses him in court, he would have ended up in Unit 313 long ago. Nevertheless, the surveillance by «Us» was pointless, or went to waste, because the recorded tapes have been made public in the newspaper and somewhere in court, bringing back some chilling memories in Paris.

Statement by Fatos Nano in the courtroom Mr Chairman, Honourable judges, Having listened attentively for the sixth time to the synoptic outline called a closing argument against me and my colleagues, who are just as innocent, and bearing in mind that it lacks nothing except clarity, awareness of reality and legal logic; that its objective is to identify and proclaim, and to impose the corresponding blows sought by the prosecutors, against the hostile group for Albania’s opening to Europe and cooperation concerning Italian emergency aid; and that this material too, while awaiting your decision to review it, will be read for the seventh time, it has been repeated at Villa No. 4 through continuous correspondence with the President, just as on 23 March at half past two, when Mr Qeleshi was the courier. him have begun the election campaign. This means that, despite the flagrant skeleton of legal procedures and the disregard for all my legal claims, the process will begin at this stage. If you acknowledge my claims and create the conditions for our defence, so that lawyer Sanxhaku may also speak, we will defend ourselves. And finally, we will defend ourselves until the end of our lives, in the sense that you may close the file in this case, certainly with an unjust decision, as the closing argument was; but although your state has brought the matter this far, despite all the steps taken against democratic coexistence in Albania, through a court proceeding, in which the procedural and legal violations committed by you will be examined one by one, as recorded in the minutes of this trial, along with the other circumstances involving the influence and imposition of political power on the independence of the justice bodies. Unintelligible statement-questions. If the court’s separation, «If» and «You». Strange in relation to the connection that Agim Bendo placed himself ... ...the details of Nano, who represents «you», even though he is a party to the court proceedings in a matter concerning the administration of justice...